A year after the torchlight outrage, WAEC candidates are still writing exams in the dark
A year after a near-identical scandal triggered nationwide outrage and a summons from the House of Representatives, the West African Examinations Council has found itself in the same darkness.
Candidates sitting for the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) across Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, and Osun states have been forced to write their papers after examination materials arrived at multiple centres hours behind schedule.
The scenes playing out this week are a near-exact replay of the crisis that gripped the country in May 2025. One that drew condemnation from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, prompted a House of Representatives ultimatum, and earned WAEC a very public apology tour.
This time, the delays cascaded across multiple subjects. Candidates reportedly waited several hours before writing the Physics papers on Monday. By Wednesday, the General Mathematics Objective paper was starting at 6:30 pm in some centres, and as late as 8:30 pm in others, leaving students finishing after 10 pm.
The situation turned particularly grim on Thursday. The Agricultural Science practical, scheduled for 2 pm, had not commenced at some centres in Oyo State as of 8 pm. Candidates were eventually forced to sit the examination under poor lighting conditions, with viral videos showing students writing by torchlights, mobile phone flashlights, and solar-powered lamps.
One X user, Adedeji Adeyinka, described it as “particularly disturbing,” noting that candidates writing Government were instructed to wait for the Objective paper — only for it to arrive more than four hours later. “A seven-hour delay is not a minor inconvenience. It is a systemic failure,” he wrote.
The bitter irony is not lost on observers. Before the 2026 examination commenced, the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, had explicitly assured the public that the disruptions of 2025 would not repeat themselves. “We have learnt from our glitches. We have perfected everything, and I speak authoritatively that we will not have a repeat of that glitch,” he had said.
That assurance has now collapsed in real time.
Last year’s chaos, which also saw students write English Language papers past midnight, prompted WAEC’s spokesperson Moyosola Adesina to blame tightened anti-leakage security protocols for the delays. The council said it had reprinted and redistributed papers on short notice, leading to a nationwide delay spanning Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Benue, Osun, and other states. A formal apology followed. Promises of reform followed that.
The questions being asked on social media are simple ones: Who is accountable? What exactly changed between 2025 and 2026? And how many more years will Nigerian students have to carry torches to write exams scheduled for 2 pm?
